Kyle MacLachlan on being mayor of 'Portlandia,' 'Twin Peaks,' and making wine

His term as the fictional mayor of Portland may be winding down, but Kyle MacLachlan sounds just as upbeat as the city leader he plays on “Portlandia.”

“Portland is a pretty phenomenal city,” MacLachlan said during a recent phone interview. The Northwest native was calling from New York, to talk about his Washington state winery, as well as share thoughts about the end of the “Portlandia” era, and revisiting “Twin Peaks.”

While MacLachlan, who was born and raised in Yakima, has starred in intense dramas, he’s shown his talent for comedy as the ever-genial mayor of Portland on “Portlandia.”

Whether kayaking across the Willamette or calling on Portland to secede from the U.S., MacLachlan’s Mayor is bursting with exuberance.

MacLachlan himself got a bit emotional as the end of his term drew near.

“It was a series wrap for him,” Brownstein said, recalling working with MacLachlan. “He was very sentimental, and kept tearing up during scenes.”

“For eight years, I looked forward to coming up to Portland in the summer,” MacLachlan says in our phone conversation. He liked being in the city for four or five days at a time, and enjoying the local dining options.

The progressive and eccentric characters in “Portlandia” MacLachlan noted, “aren’t that far removed from reality,” maybe “one tick” away from “my experiences, anyway, being in Portland.”

In our phone conversation, MacLachlan says that filming in the Rose City since “Portlandia” began in 2011 has been “a pleasure.”

“I feel like there’s such enthusiasm in Portland for everything,” he says, adding that “Portlandia” has made fun – with a “wink and a nudge” -- of such good-natured obsessives.

“Fred and Carrie are so smart at making that kind of commentary” about characters, “and not judging them,” MacLachlan says.

MacLachlan himself has fond recollections about Portland, dating back to his childhood. He had relatives in Vancouver, Washington, so he and his family would drive down from Yakima to visit, ”and we would come into Portland, way back in the ‘60s.”

MacLachlan has memories of eating at a restaurant in Chinatown, but he can’t remember the name of the place. “It had an old neon sign,” he says. “That was our big night out.”

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Suzanne Tenner/Showtime

Perhaps because of their shared roots in the Northwest region, MacLachlan has enjoyed an especially significant collaboration with director David Lynch, who was born in Missoula, Montana.

MacLachlan is best known for playing FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper in the original TV series, “Twin Peaks,” and the actor reunited with Lynch and Mark Frost on the sequel, “Twin Peaks: The Return,” which aired on Showtime in 2017.

Though “Twin Peaks: The Return” was often baffling, MacLachlan was exceptional, playing three roles, as Cooper; Mr. C, an evil double of Cooper; and “Dougie” Jones, a hapless insurance agent who was also a doppelganger of sorts for Cooper.

It’s all very complicated, but MacLachlan was sensationally good at playing three characters who were utterly different.

It was “an amazing opportunity to play those roles,” MacLachlan says. “I’m really proud of the work.”

He’s been asked before if he thinks Lynch and Frost might do another season of “Twin Peaks,” and MacLachlan says his comments that it’s possible have been a bit overplayed.

“I don’t think so,” MacLachlan says of the prospect of more “Twin Peaks.”

“I kind of take the line of ‘never say never,’” he adds, and if Lynch and Frost get an idea they want to explore, it “could happen.”

But MacLachlan says, “I’m doubtful” that there will be more “Twin Peaks.”